


What's In A Word - Open Water

by Davechicken



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-09
Updated: 2015-07-09
Packaged: 2018-04-08 11:19:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4302828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Davechicken/pseuds/Davechicken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt - open water.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What's In A Word - Open Water

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thekingsparty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekingsparty/gifts).



For once, they’ve won. For the time being, anyway. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow there will be some other problem, some other villain, some other danger that needs the skills of two old-hands (and claws). But today they’re done. Today they can go to bed at night and not lie awake thinking of all the potential incidents they could have avoided if they’d just _worked that bit harder_. Those nights are always the best.

The bar where they had a few beers and chicken wings at was more a private celebration than a failed attempt to get buzzed. Derek knows the faintest touch of intoxication long since left his bloodstream, and that any lingering feeling is nothing to do with hops and fermented sugars. Chris’ satisfaction is a drug all of itself. Derek is steadily getting addicted to the high he can all but taste after they successfully **hunt** something. It satisfies his inner wolf, it fills his brain with _reward_ and it makes the other’s eyes glitter and his heartbeat speed up. Makes him smell of victory and self-satisfaction. 

They sit on the edge of the pier, the world behind them and the water in front. The sounds of society (car tyres, laughter, squabbling, pacing) are a backdrop that he tunes out, but never loses. The real sound, the one he can’t ignore, is the thump-thump, thump-thump, slow but sure, in the other’s chest. Cold, salty sea-air that settles on his partner’s skin and will mingle with his own salt-sweat when he licks him clean later. 

“I need to make more mountain-ash hollow-points,” Chris says, as if he’s discussing the weather. “I’m almost out.”

Derek nods, processing it, but also… not. Chris has a beautiful voice, and he’s always happy to hear the man talk work. His tone is relaxed, then. As if he finds safety in the mundane. Or… mundane to him. They use work as a filter, and he’s sure when Chris says ‘Pass me a clip’ that it’s his way of saying something completely different at the same time. That, or he’s putting more into their chatter than is intended, but his body adds things his words never do.

“We need to check out by twelve,” Derek answers. Adds. Whatever. It also isn’t about the domestics of their rented hotel room. It’s them-speak for ‘we don’t have to get up early in the morning, so we can stay up late tonight, and maybe spend a few hours extra in bed, so long as we’re done fucking in time to check out’. Only… more romantic. Or something. 

“I’m almost going to miss this place.”

Derek cocks his head, surprised. Chris rarely expresses a liking for places (other than their beds, showers, or other amenities).

Chris nods out at the slowly-lapping tide. “Used to go to the coast sometimes. Visit my grandmother. She’d semi-retired.”

He rarely talks about his family, especially the ones Derek didn’t know. It’s a sensitive subject, after all. Derek smiles at the offering, the window into his past. “I wasn’t aware hunters _did_ that.”

“She had cancer,” Chris admits. “I didn’t know it at the time. They kept it from me until she was almost gone. She didn’t want people to treat her differently.”

Derek has never known illness, not really. Being part of the Hale family meant the only deaths people tended to have were violent and bloody. Normally at the hands of an Argent, or another hunter family. He wonders what it would be like to lose someone by degrees, instead of all at once. He’s glad he’ll never have to find out. “Sounds like she was a strong woman.”

Chris nods. “We’d walk along the beach, collect shells and interesting rocks. I used to love the sound of the waves.” A breath, but he wasn’t done talking. Derek can tell, so he waits. “I’d leave my window open at night to hear it.”

The wolf tilts his head, really listening, now. It is a strangely soothing sound, and he knows the hurt he can feel in the other is a good hurt, a… loving hurt. He nudges his knee just slightly to the other’s. 

“I think she’d approve of you.”

Now _that_ is surprising.

“Fangs and all?”

Chris nods. “She used to tell me not all monsters had fangs. And not all fangs hid monsters. I don’t know if she said it to anyone else, because no one ever mentioned it.”

“She was a smart woman.”

The hunter says nothing, and Derek respects that. He grips his shoulder firmly, offering silent support. Chris takes the offer and leans against his side.

“We’ll leave the window open tonight,” Derek decides. He wants to hear the waves, too.


End file.
